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White Sox Designate Bailey Horn For Assignment

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The White Sox announced a series of roster moves, many of which were previously reported. Outfielders Rafael Ortega and Tommy Pham have been selected to the roster. Two more outfielders were removed, as Kevin Pillar has been designated for assignment and Dominic Fletcher has been optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. To open one more spot on the 40-man, left-handed pitcher Bailey Horn was also designated for assignment.

Horn, 26, was just acquired from the Cubs in February. The latter club was looking to open a 40-man spot for Cody Bellinger and flipped Horn across town for minor league right-hander Matt Thompson. That sent Horn back to his original organization, as he was drafted by the Sox but traded to the Cubs in 2021 for Ryan Tepera.

The southpaw has long shown big strikeout potential but also a concerning lack of command, trends that have continued into 2024. He has thrown 10 1/3 innings at Triple-A Charlotte so far this year, striking out 15 opponents but also giving out 10 walks. Four home runs allowed have also led to 13 runs crossing the plate, leading to an 11.32 earned run average.

Those poor results have bumped him off the 40-man and the Sox will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Despite the rough start to his season, he could perhaps garner interest based on his previous work. Over 2022 and 2023, he tossed 113 2/3 innings between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 3.56 ERA in that time, striking out 30.5% of batters faced but also issuing walks at a 13.3% rate.

The Cubs only just added him to their 40-man in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft, meaning he has a full slate of options. If any club felt they had a way to harness the control going forward, they could acquire Horn and stash him in the minors for years to come.

White Sox To Select Tommy Pham, Designate Kevin Pillar For Assignment

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The White Sox are set to select the contract of veteran outfielder Tommy Pham, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Fellow outfielder Kevin Pillar will be designated for assignment as the corresponding move, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. Pham had an out clause in his minor league contract that he could exercise if not added to the roster heading into this weekend. He’ll earn a prorated $3MM salary on his deal with the South Siders.

Pham, 36, only got into four games with the White Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte but handled himself well, going 5-for-17 with a double, two steals, one walk and just three strikeouts in 18 total plate appearances. The veteran corner outfielder is coming off a season where he slashed a combined .256/.328/.446 with 16 homers, 27 doubles, three triples and 22 stolen bases in 481 plate appearances between the Mets and Diamondbacks. If he can come anywhere close to that level of production, he’d immediately become one of the most productive bats in a punchless White Sox lineup that ranks dead last in Major League Baseball in runs scored, home runs, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Given the White Sox’ disastrous start to the season, Pham seems likely to be afforded fairly regular playing time. Left fielder Andrew Benintendi is out to an astonishingly bad .165/.202/.188 start through his first 89 plate appearances and could see his playing time take a hit. That’s particularly true given that right fielder Gavin Sheets has been the team’s best offensive player at .246/.361/.464. Sheets came up as a first baseman though, so it’s also feasible that he could see some extra reps there, considering Andrew Vaughn’s own woeful .170/.255/.216 output on the season. Designated hitter Eloy Jimenez has a grim .200/.280/.333 line in 50 plate appearances, but he’s been swinging the bat well over the past week.

Pillar, 35, also signed a minor league pact with a $3MM base salary. He made the big league roster out of camp but — like the majority of Chicago’s offense — has sputtered to begin the season. He’s only received 32 plate appearances but has turned in a tepid .160/.290/.360 batting line with a homer and two doubles in that time. With Pillar and Pham both being right-handed hitters, their simultaneous presence on the roster apparently was deemed redundant.

Once one of the game’s premier defensive center fielders, Pillar has settled into a bench role in recent seasons. He spent the 2023 campaign with the Braves, hitting for decent power but struggling to get on base — evidenced by his .228/.248/.416 slash and nine round-trippers in 206 plate appearances. That’s right in line with Pillar’s overall production over the past four seasons; he’s a .224/.265/.408 hitter in 598 turns at the plate during that span.

The White Sox will have a week to trade Pillar, pass him through outright waivers or release him. A release is most common for veterans in situations like this one. That’d put Pillar back on the open market and allow him to field interest from the other 29 teams around the league.

White Sox, Tommy Pham Agree To Minor League Contract

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April 15: MLB.com’s Juan Toribio reports (on X) that the Sox and Pham have indeed reached an agreement. The veteran outfielder will be guaranteed a $3MM base salary for time spent in the majors and can earn an additional $1.5MM in performance bonuses. Pham would be able to request his release if he’s not called to the majors by April 25, tweets Rosenthal. There’s a $500K assignment bonus if Pham gets traded, per Rosenthal.

April 14: The White Sox and Tommy Pham are close to an agreement on a minor league deal, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports.  The non-guaranteed nature of the contract is something of a technicality due to the fact that Pham is out of minor league options.  Since Pham will need some time to properly ramp up to the regular season, starting him in the minors gives the White Sox more flexibility to call him up whenever he is ready.

The Padres, Pirates, and Diamondbacks were all linked to Pham at various points during the offseason, and 10 teams reportedly checked in on the veteran outfielder early in November.  The White Sox were also known to be interested in Pham’s services, as USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first noted just under a month ago.  However, Opening Day came and went without Pham finding a new contract, and Rosenthal notes that Chicago might have been motivated to finally close a deal after losing Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, and Luis Robert Jr. to the injured list.

Assuming that a deal is finalized and Pham reaches the active roster as planned, the White Sox will be the eighth different team the outfielder has played for over what will be an 11th Major League season.  While his production has been inconsistent over the last four of those seasons, Pham hit well just last year, batting .256/.328/.446 over 481 combined plate appearances with the Mets and Diamondbacks.  He also ran hot-and-cold during Arizona’s playoff run, but Pham had huge performances for the D’Backs in the NLDS and in the World Series.

Pham turned 36 last month, and some off-the-field issues have perhaps contributed to his semi-journeyman status despite generally solid numbers over the years.  That said, Pham was one of many veteran free agents who remained on the market for a long time, and ended up signing for much less than expected.  This cold market impacted not just some of the bigger names available (Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery, etc.), but perhaps hit hardest for more mid-tier players like Pham.

As Brandon Belt described things in a recent interview, interested teams seemed to universally view him as a backup plan this winter, and it is fair to wonder if the same applied to Pham.  If other teams found other outfielders, or (perhaps more importantly) outfielders willing to play for lesser salaries, it left fewer and fewer opportunities for Pham to land a suitor.  Rosenthal notes that Pham was “waiting for an offer he felt was commensurate with his value,” so price seems to have been a factor.

It could be that Pham’s time in Chicago ends up being pretty short, since if he hits well, he’ll undoubtedly get a lot of attention from contenders at the trade deadline.  The White Sox already look like sellers after a dreadful 2-13 start to the season, and moving a short-term veteran bat like Pham could be just one of many trades GM Chris Getz could make before the deadline is over.

Until then, Pham could just slide into a regular role as the right-handed hitting complement to Andrew Benintendi in left field, or with Gavin Sheets at DH.  Chicago signed Robbie Grossman to a minors deal in late March and Grossman has already become essentially an everyday player in either corner outfield slot, so Pham could also eat into that playing time.

Luis Robert Jr. Facing Lengthy Absence

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The White Sox placed center fielder Luis Robert Jr. on the 10-day injured list over the weekend, and while the team didn’t provide a timetable for his return, Robert himself told the Sox beat that he’s been diagnosed with a Grade 2 hip flexor strain. Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Sox are currently anticipating an absence of six to eight weeks for the star outfielder. Some in the organization are more concerned and think Robert could miss three-plus months, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes.

Robert exited Friday’s game against the Royals after he injured himself rounding first base on a double into the left field corner (video link). An exact timetable surely depends on how he progresses through the early stages of his rehab process. Robert endured a strain in this same right hip flexor back in 2021 as well, though that was a Grade 3 strain — more severe than his current injury. He wound up missing nearly three and a half months with that injury.

Robert, 26, made his first All-Star team and nabbed some down-ballot MVP votes in 2023 after he hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 home runs and 20 steals in 145 games. He was out to a slower start to the 2024 season, batting .214/.241/.500 with a pair of big flies and an uncharacteristic 38% strikeout rate — albeit in a tiny sample of 39 plate appearances.

The Sox weren’t ever expected to compete this season, but a minimum month-and-a-half absence — and potentially a good bit longer on the shelf — for their best player is a critical blow to a largely torn-down roster. With Robert out for the foreseeable future, the Sox will likely turn to offseason trade acquisition Dominic Fletcher in center. He’s already started two games there since Robert first sustained his injury. Listed at just 5’6″, Fletcher is undersized relative to other big leaguers but nevertheless touted as a plus defender at all three outfield spots. Veterans Andrew Benintendi and Robbie Grossman are lined up for frequent corner work now, although the team surely hopes 25-year-old Oscar Colas can get back on track in Triple-A and reenter the right field mix after a dismal 2023 season.

There was some speculation regarding a potential trade of Robert over the winter, as the Sox are once again in a rebuilding mode — under new front office leadership for the first time in two decades. But general manager Chris Getz never seemed all that likely to trade Robert, who is one of the game’s most dynamic talents and is signed to a club-friendly contract. Robert is being paid $12.5MM this season and $15MM next year. The Sox hold a pair of club options for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, both valued at $20MM with a $2MM buyout. In other words, he’s guaranteed $29.5MM over the next two seasons but could be controlled all the way through 2027 for a total of $67.5MM.

It’s an eminently reasonable price, though the mounting injury history for Robert is certainly a concern. He’s only reached 100 games in a big league season once (last year) and seems unlikely to get there in 2024 following this injury. Critics might argue that his trade value was at his peak this offseason, coming off a season of MVP-caliber production in a career-high 595 plate appearances. It’s overwhelmingly rare to see an established talent with this much team control traded, however, and Getz would’ve been well within his right to hold out for a return that rivals any of the largest trade packages we’ve seen in recent memory.

On the plus side for the Sox, Robert is so talented and still signed for so long that even if he misses multiple months, his trade value ought to remain considerable. And, of course, the team doesn’t need to trade him this summer or even next offseason or at the 2025 trade deadline. Depending on how the team’s current rebuild progresses (or fails to do so), Robert could conceivably still be part of a contending White Sox club in a few years’ time. And if things do stall out longer than the team currently hopes, he’d command a haul even if he were being marketed with “only” two years or one and a half years of club control remaining.

For now, the focus will be squarely on getting Robert back onto the field — though it seems a late-May return is a best-case scenario. Nightengale suggests the Sox will at least be open to the idea of outside acquisitions and lists free agent Tommy Pham as a potential fit.

NL Notes: Pham, Contreras, Cabrera, Garrett, Uhlman

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Multiple reports over the offseason indicated that the Padres had interest in signing Tommy Pham, with the most recent of these items coming in mid-March, when USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote that San Diego had interest in Pham on a one-year deal worth around $3MM or $4MM.  Opening Day has now come and gone with Pham still a free agent, but Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the Padres still have interest, though they are wary that signing Pham wouldn’t leave much flexibility for future in-season moves while still remaining under the luxury tax threshold.

RosterResource projects a current tax number of around $223.6MM for San Diego, while Cot’s Baseball Contracts has a notably higher projection of $231MM.  It is important to note that these sites and others are only making estimates, while teams have their own internal mechanisms for calculating a luxury tax figure (and the league its own set of calculations to determine the final number at the end of the season).  The Padres seem intent on resetting their tax payor status and staying under the $237MM threshold, so if they have reservations about signing Pham for $3-4MM, that perhaps might indicate their internal number is closer to Cot’s figure than RR’s figure.  That said, it could also be a negotiating tactic on the Padres’ part to seek out a larger bargain on Pham, as the outfielder is undoubtedly eager to get onto the field.

More from around the National League…

  • X-rays were negative on Willson Contreras’ left hand, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat and other reporters.  Contreras was hit by a pitch on Wednesday and didn’t play in today’s 8-5 win over the Marlins, but the hope is that he can play in the Cards’ next game on Saturday, either as a DH or as a catcher.  Contreras already has two homers and a .979 OPS over his first 25 plate appearances of the young season, as he enters the second year of his five-year, $87.5MM pact with St. Louis.
  • Eury Perez’s Tommy John surgery has dealt another blow to the Marlins’ injury-riddled rotation, but some help might be on the way.  Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett are each scheduled to make two Triple-A rehab starts before being activated from the 15-day injured list, as per the Marlins’ updates to MLB.com and other media today.  Cabrera already made one 43-pitch rehab start on March 31, and his next outing is planned for Friday.  Garrett’s slated outing on April 7 will be the first of two starts, and his most recent work took place in an extended Spring Training game back on Tuesday.  Both starters are recovering from impingements in their throwing shoulders.
  • Returning to the Padres, manager Mike Shildt told reporters yesterday that longtime assistant GM Fred Uhlman Jr. was resigning his position.  President of baseball operations A.J. Preller discussed Uhlman’s decision with Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, saying that Uhlman’s duties had been re-assigned to others over the last few months, and that Uhlman had stayed in his job during “this transitional period.”  Uhlman has been with San Diego since 1995 and an assistant GM since 1996, acting as a constant within the front office even as the Padres have hired and fired multiple general managers during his long tenure.  Josh Stein is the only other person in the front office with an assistant GM title, though Preller said the Padres don’t plan to replace Uhlman in the near future.

Padres, Tommy Pham Discussing One-Year Deal

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According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Padres are “in talks” with free agent Tommy Pham and “could be moving closer” to an agreement. It would be a one-year contract in the $3MM to $4MM range. Nightengale also reports that the White Sox are interested in the veteran outfielder if his negotiations with the Padres fall through.

Pham has been linked to San Diego through several recent reports. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that the team remained “engaged in conversations” with Pham earlier this week, while Jon Heyman of the New York Post noted the Padres were “among teams eying Tommy Pham.” Other outfielders linked to the Padres, namely Adam Duvall and Michael A. Taylor, have now signed elsewhere, while other teams linked to Pham, such as the Diamondbacks and Pirates, have gone in a different direction.

The fit for Pham in San Diego is clear. Jurickson Profar is currently slated to get most of the playing time in left field. The Padres are surely hoping Profar bounces back from his career-worst season in 2023, but it would be nice for manager Mike Shildt to have another option if that doesn’t happen. The team will also need a designated hitter once Manny Machado is ready to return to third base; Pham played 44 games at DH last year for the Mets and D-backs.

Pham previously played for San Diego in 2020 and ’21, and Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported earlier this offseason that he would be open to a reunion.

As for the White Sox, they should be set in left field and at DH with Andrew Benintendi and Eloy Jiménez, respectively. However, the left-handed rookie Dominic Fletcher could use a platoon partner in right field, and Chicago could use a right-handed bat for the bench. Presumably, Pham is looking to be more than a bench bat and the short side of a platoon; he said as much earlier this winter. Yet, at this point in the offseason, he may have to settle for a limited role, especially if he wants to get in some spring training games before the regular season begins. What’s more, if he plays well for the White Sox, he can earn more playing time, and he can expect to be dealt to a contender before the trade deadline.

Pirates Have Shown Interest In Tommy Pham

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The Pirates are among the teams that have shown some recent interest in free agent outfielder Tommy Pham, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He again lists the Padres as a potential fit for Pham as well. San Diego has been connected to Pham at multiple points over the past few weeks.

Pittsburgh has Bryan Reynolds locked into left field and Jack Suwinski in center, but right field is more open at the moment. Connor Joe, Edward Olivares and Joshua Palacios could all see some time at the position. Each is on the 40-man roster and remains in camp. Pham has played far more left field than right field in his big league career, but he did log 78 innings in right with the D-backs just this past season. His arm strength clocked into the 69th percentile of MLB outfielders, per Statcast — well ahead of Reynolds (and thus making a shift of Reynolds to right field seem unlikely).

The 36-year-old Pham had a solid year at the plate in 2023, hitting .265/.328/.446 with 16 home runs, 27 doubles and three triples in 481 trips to the plate. He walked at a strong 9.8% clip and struck out at a 22% clip that was a bit lower than the MLB average. Despite being in his mid-30s, Pham also swiped 22 bases in in 25 tries (88% success rate) and landed in the 61st percentile of MLB players for his sprint speed, per Statcast.

The Pirates were one of MLB’s least-productive teams against left-handed pitching in 2023, hitting .246/.318/.383. That .383 slugging percentage was the fourth-lowest among all MLB clubs, and the 89 wRC+ resulting from that line ranked 25th among the league’s 30 teams. Pham’s career .271/.381/.453 batting lien against lefties (.245/.322/.465 in 2023) would help to address that deficiency.

Pham has been linked to several teams beyond the Padres and Pirates over the winter, though several of those clubs have since made other moves. The Twins acquired Manuel Margot from the Dodgers, adding the righty outfield bat they’d been seeking. Arizona paid Randal Grichuk a $2MM salary to fill their own need for a right-handed bat. The Braves signed Adam Duvall to a $3MM deal just yesterday. The Red Sox have been linked to a possible Pham reunion and haven’t added a right-handed outfield bat since that time — though they did bring righty slugger C.J. Cron aboard on a minor league deal. Boston also announced yesterday that fellow righty outfielder Rob Refsnyder would miss time with a fractured toe.

Padres Still Showing Interest In Michael A. Taylor, Adam Duvall

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The Padres have left open the possibility of bringing in veteran outfield help well into Spring Training. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the Friars are still involved in the respective markets for free agents Michael A. Taylor, Adam Duvall and Tommy Pham, among others. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin has also linked the Padres to Pham on a few occasions in recent weeks.

Taylor is the only viable everyday center fielder still on the open market. He remains one of the sport’s top defensive outfielders as he nears his 33rd birthday. By measure of Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average, Taylor rated anywhere between five to seven runs above par in nearly 1000 innings of center field work for the Twins a year ago. DRS has credited him with 65 runs saved at the outfield’s most important spot over his decade in the major leagues.

That’s sufficient to make Taylor a viable bottom-of-the-lineup regular so long as he’s contributing anything offensively. He did enough at the plate in Minnesota, connecting on a personal-high 21 home runs and stealing 13 bases over 388 plate appearances. Taylor has some power, although it comes with a lot of empty at-bats. He punched out more than a third of the time en route to a .220 average and very poor .278 on-base mark. Taylor has gotten on base less than 30% of the time in three of his last four seasons.

The offensive inconsistency has led teams to shy away from his asking price. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote last week that Taylor views himself similarly to fellow glove-first center fielders Kevin Kiermaier and Harrison Bader, each of whom signed for one year and $10.5MM earlier this offseason. While he is coming off a superior platform year to Bader and doesn’t have the same injury history as Kiermiaer, it’s hard to envision Taylor finding that kind of salary a few from Opening Day.

That’s particularly true from a San Diego team that has spent much of the offseason cutting payroll. From a roster perspective, though, the Padres might be the most straightforward fit. José Azocar is a .249/.292/.341 hitter in 153 big league contests. He has rated as a quality defender in his own right, but he might have an even lighter bat than Taylor does.

The Padres will probably want to keep Azocar in a fourth outfield capacity. As things stand, that’d likely mean calling upon Jackson Merrill as their starting center fielder. Merrill, 20, hasn’t played above Double-A. Primarily a shortstop prospect, he has worked in the outfield this spring. The lefty-hitting Merrill is one of the sport’s top minor league talents, but relying on him as a starting center fielder would be a gamble even for a San Diego team that is generally aggressive about promoting its prospects.

Merrill has zero minor league innings at the position. That’s on top of his limited experience facing advanced pitching. The former first-round pick has held his own at the plate this spring, hitting .286/.355/.357 in 31 trips to the plate. He’s drawn three walks while striking out twice but only has two extra-base hits (both doubles).

Further complicating matters, the Padres don’t have a clear solution in left field. Even if the Friars feel Merrill is ready to face big league arms, they could play him in left to accommodate a Taylor signing. That’d bump Jurickson Profar to the bench. So too would signing one of Duvall of Pham, both of whom are righty-hitting corner options. They’re similarly valuable players, as MLBTR’s Nick Deeds explored over the weekend. Duvall brings more power to the table, while Pham is more consistent at getting on base.

In any case, the Padres will need to make some kind of outfield transaction in the next few days. Azocar, Profar and Fernando Tatis Jr. are the only outfielders on the 40-man roster. Minor league signees Óscar Mercado, Tyler Wade and Brad Miller remain on the major league side of camp as possible bench additions.

San Diego is faced with those questions sooner than almost anyone else. They begin their regular season with a two-game series against the Dodgers in South Korea on March 20-21. The Padres will fly to Seoul two days from now. Acee notes that if they do sign a veteran outfielder, that player would likely skip the Korea series and remain in minor league camp to build up for the rest of the season.

Free Agent Faceoff: Adam Duvall/Tommy Pham

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The Dodgers and Padres are set to kick off the regular season with the Korea Series in Seoul less than two weeks from today, and MLB’s 28 other clubs will follow suit the week afterwards. At this late stage of Spring Training, it’s rare for free agents of particular note to remain available on the market, but a handful of quality players linger on the open market nonetheless. That group is led by front-of-the-rotation southpaws Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, though there’s a crop of interesting lower-level pieces available as well, ranging from veteran slugger J.D. Martinez to right-handed hurler Michael Lorenzen.

While the market is deepest in starting pitching at this point in the winter, there’s one other position where teams with a need will find a number of options worth consideration still available: the outfield. Michael A. Taylor is generally regarded as the best player remaining on the market in that group due to his superlative center field defense and a strong platform season in Minnesota that saw him slug a career-best 21 home runs. With that being said, a pair of veteran bats also remain available for teams hoping to add a bit more pop to their lineup or bench mix at this late stage in the offseason: Adam Duvall and Tommy Pham. The pair are both right-handed hitting outfielders with ten seasons of MLB experience under their belt across a combined ten different clubs. The duo also both took one-year deals last winter following a down 2022 season before bouncing back in 2023 to post above-average production at the plate, and are only five months apart in age.

Similar as they are, there are some key differences between the two. Pham has been the much more consistent regular of the two throughout his career, with his 481 trips to the plate in 2023 being his lowest figure in a 162-game season since he became a full-time player in 2017. Duvall, by contrast, has reached 450 plate appearances in a season just three times in his career, most recently during the 2021 season. In addition to having more experience under his belt, Pham has been the better hitter overall for his career with a triple slash of .259/.351/.435 (116 wRC+) as opposed to Duvall’s career .232/.291/.472 (98 wRC+) slash line. The difference in the pair’s career numbers is particularly noticeable against southpaws, whom Pham has posted an .834 OPS against for his career compared to Duvall’s .770 OPS against.

While availability on the field and career numbers seem to clearly favor Pham, Duvall isn’t without advantages of his own. Despite the disparity in career numbers, he’s actually been a slightly superior hitter in recent years, with a .231/.288/.487 slash line that translates to a 104 wRC+ since the start of the 2020 season. Over that same time period, Pham has slashed just .238/.325/.392 with a 99 wRC+. In addition to the slightly stronger offensive production in recent seasons, Duvall also offers the ability to play center field, with 1,070 2/3 innings of work at the position over the past three seasons. By contrast, Pham has stuck almost entirely to the outfield corners during that same time frame, starting just 14 games in center since the start of the 2021 season. While Duvall’s glove in center has generally been panned by defensive metrics (-5 DRS, -4 OAA in 2023), the ability to handle the position is surely notable for clubs that value positional flexibility or have a need in center.

While Duvall has been the slightly better offensive player in recent years, his lead over Pham in that regard is hardly commanding. Strong as Duvall’s recent offensive performance has been, his low on-base percentages and 31.5% strikeout rate since the start of the 2021 season leave him reliant on power output for his production at the plate. That’s suited him just fine, as he’s slugged a combined 71 homers over the last three years including a whopping 38 as a full-time regular during the 2021 season. Even so, it’s certainly fair to wonder if teams in search of a regular fixture in their outfield mix would prefer Pham’s more consistent production and stronger plate discipline, with a 24.1% strikeout rate and a strong 10.9% walk rate over the past three seasons in spite of his paltry .158 ISO over that same period.

Advanced metrics certainly look more fondly on Pham’s approach, as evidenced by Pham’s .361 xwOBA in 2023 which not only outstrips his relatively pedestrian .332 wOBA, but also Duvall’s .347 figure. By contrast, Duvall’s xwOBA last season left something to be desired as he posted a figure of just .306. That disparity between Duvall’s strong results and iffy peripheral numbers can be explained in part by his torrid start to the season that saw him slug ten extra-base hits in just eight games, and his relatively pedestrian numbers afterwards that saw him post a wRC+ of just 93 following his return from injury. While it’s certainly possible that Duvall’s wrist injury sapped some of his power upon his return to the field, it’s also worth noting that Duvall’s post-injury numbers are fairly similar to his 2022 performance, where he posted a lackluster 87 wRC+ with peripheral numbers to match.

Given the pair’s number of similarities, the choice between the two players could simply come down to fit on their hypothetical new club for many teams. Organizations looking to bring in a potential regular may be more likely to choose Pham thanks to his track record as an everyday player and more reliable approach at the plate. That being said, a team looking for a contributor off the bench could be more drawn to Duvall’s recent experience at all three outfield spots and his titanic power which can allow him to change the game with a single swing. If your team was to add one of the two veterans to its outfield mix ahead of Opening Day, who would you rather have?

Padres Remain Interested In Outfield Addition

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The Padres continue their search for an established outfielder, writes Dennis Lin of the Athletic. Free agent Tommy Pham remains a possibility, Lin indicates. San Diego’s regular season opener is just three weeks away.

Lin first reported the Padres had given some consideration to Pham at the beginning of the month. While San Diego has since added Jurickson Profar on a $1MM pact, that’s not a huge impediment to bringing in another outfielder. San Diego still has only three outfielders on the 40-man roster: Fernando Tatis Jr., José Azócar and Profar.

Regardless of whether they add anyone else, they’re sorting through a few non-roster players battling in camp. None is more exciting than 20-year-old Jackson Merrill. San Diego is working out the top shortstop prospect in the outfield this spring. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote this afternoon that Merrill seems increasingly likely to secure a spot on the Opening Day roster.

The Padres wouldn’t call Merrill up if they weren’t going to give him everyday run. He’d be making the jump past Triple-A. The former first-round pick split last year between High-A and Double-A. Merrill put up a .273/.338/.444 line in 211 plate appearances with Double-A San Antonio. That’s solid work in the pitcher-friendly Texas League, although it doesn’t guarantee he’ll find success against big league pitching right away.

Depending on potential acquisitions, the Padres could offer Merrill regular run in either left or center field. Pham would be limited to left field. Landing him would kick Profar to the bench and provide an upgrade to the lineup. Pham is coming off a .256/.328/.446 slash with 16 homers and 22 steals through 481 plate appearances between the Mets and Diamondbacks. He’s a known quantity for the front office after playing in San Diego from 2020-21.

Adding a corner outfielder would leave Merrill competing with Azócar and perhaps Jakob Marsee for the center field job. Azócar is a good runner and defensive specialist who has hit .249/.292/.341 in 153 big league games. Marsee, 22, only has 16 games above High-A. He posted excellent numbers at High-A Fort Wayne a year ago, running a .273/.413/.425 line with 41 steals and more walks than strikeouts. Prospect evaluators generally rank him as a solid but not elite minor league talent. He’s widely projected as a fourth outfielder based on strong strike zone awareness with limited power.

Each of Oscar Mercado, Bryce Johnson, Cal Mitchell and Tim Locastro are in camp on minor league deals. None of them is likely to step into an everyday role, but there should be room for at least one to secure a bench spot. Michael A. Taylor is the only potential regular center fielder left on the free agent market. Pham, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario are the top corner options. There’s still some activity on the trade front, as this week’s deal sending Manuel Margot to Minnesota demonstrates. While the Padres have been loosely connected to Jarren Duran and Sal Frelick in trade rumors, there’s no indication they made any headway in those discussions.

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